Michael MuchmoreiBooks for iPadiBooks has a lovely bookstore and reading presentation, but a few features are missing, the selection is smaller than the competition, and the iPad itself has some natural drawbacks as an e-reader.

Smaller book selection than the Kindle and nook. No reverse text. No auto scroll. No magazinesyet. No sharing e-books among devicesyet.

Bottom Line

iBooks has a lovely bookstore and reading presentation, but a few features are missing, the selection is smaller than the competition, and the iPad itself has some natural drawbacks as an e-reader.

I could go on about the features that iBooks for the iPad has (and lacks) compared with other e-readers and e-book reading software (and I will), but possibly the most important factor in determining its worth is whether you want to read entire books on an iPad. If you don't mind getting tied into Apple's book ecosystem and your eyes can handle more hours staring at yet another LED screen, the iPad's color display and touch capabilities make the iPad's iBooks app a very capable e-book reader. And it will be an even more compelling platform when the app is available for iPhones and computers, giving you more book portability.

There's no denying that the iPad has a beautiful, crisp screen image, and I was surprised how pleasant it was to read on it. I also occasionally read e-books on my iPhone, and it's not that bad an experience. But for serious, long reads, neither can compare with E Ink readers such as the Amazon Kindle ($359 direct, ), Barnes & Noble Nook ($259 direct, ), or Sony Reader ($299 direct, ). The iPad's LED backlit screen just can't simulate the gentle look of paper the way these do. Of course, this will depend on the eyes of the beholder, literally. Many people report no eyestrain when reading on the iPad, but personally, my eyes are happier with the E Ink for sustained reading. Your mileage will definitely vary, but I think it's safe to say that if you already struggle with computer-related eyestrain, you should go the E Ink route. If not, reading on the iPad is a compelling experience.

Getting iBooks
Navigating the book-store experience is initially smooth and intuitive, but it doesn't offer sub-categories below the top level. For example, in the Barnes & Noble bookstore, after choosing History, you can refine the results further by choosing from 12 subcategories such as African History, Ancient History, and Military History. iBooks doesn't allow you to drill down in a similar manner.

iBooks' New bestsellers cost $9.99, but you can also find popular books in the $5.99 to $12.99 price rangeon par with prices for Kindle and nook books. There are also lots of free books available, too. In terms of stock, Apple only claims "tens of thousands of books" in comparison with Kindle's 450,000 and Nook's 1 million, but deals with publishers like Penguin, HarperCollins, and Macmillan will surely grow the selection quickly. The one truly large omission is the lack of magazine and newspaper subscriptions (which you can get on Kindle and Nook), but I suspect that those will appear in the not-too-distant future.

iBooks uses the open EPUB format for e-books, but it doesn't take advantage of the format's biggest advantage: universal device interoperability. Apple applies Fairplay DRM to its EPUB books, so consumers will be unable to transfer content to non-Apple devices (you can, however, import non-DRM EPUB books into the iPad). Apple states, however, that books purchased from the iBookstore can be placed on up to five computers, but synced to any number of iPads. Amazon's Kindle system is even more closed, not even supporting EPUB, but Sony's Reader and the COOL-ER, by contrast, let you take full advantage of EPUB books, allowing purchased and free titles to be read on any other Adobe EPUB compatible reader. Those who use these two devices can also get them in more places;even from public libraries.

Once you've got some books in your iPad, iBooks presents them in beautiful wooden shelvesan idea clearly borrowed from the popular iPhone book app called Classics (which Apple even featured in one of its iPhone TV ads). The bookshelf keeps track of where you are in each book, and, if you don't like the default shelf and book cover view, you can switch to a list view, which also shows the book's genres and lets you view them sorted by title, author, or category.

Reading iBooks on the iPad
When it comes to actually reading in iBooks, you've a reasonable amount of options. You can choose from several well-designed typefaces, search the text, or adjust the brightness from the top menu. The last is of major importance because staring at the white page started to tax my old orbs with the backlight set too bright. Other e-reader software offers more options; even Kindle for the iPad lets you change the background and text color. Sadly, iBooks doesn't offer a reverse text view, which would save you from staring at a white backlit screen and would be particularly useful for nighttime reading. Kindle for iPad offers this feature.

You can jump to any page number from a control at the bottom of the screen, and pressing text with a finger presents three options: Bookmark, word search, and Web search. Some books, particularly those in the public domain, add the ability to copy and paste to this touch menu, but this doesn't hold for other titles. Bookmarking and highlighting are combined: Select text and choose bookmark, and that text will be highlighted yellow. You can jump back to the bookmark from a tab on the Contents view.

Also reminiscent of the iPhone Classics app is the way pages turn; the animation does a beautiful job of simulating an actual paper book's page turning. This is one characteristic that dedicated readers like the Kindle and Nook can't match, as their E Ink page refreshing requires a flash to black before displaying the next page. Kindle users generally get used to this, though it's not ideal.

There's one near-dealbreaker for me: You can't turn off the status bar at the top of the screen. When I'm reading a book, I want an immersive experience that doesn't include distracting me with my current Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and battery status. Several good iPhone apps avoid this problem, as does the Kindle iPad app, though the Kindle device itself always shows Whispernet status.

In addition, the iPad's larger, heavier size makes it less suitable for reading on the commute or in bedI couldn't comfortably hold it in one hand for a long time, and in order to turn pages, you need to do just that.

When you enable VoiceOver, iBooks read aloud what's on a single page, but doesn't do an uninterrupted read of the entire book the way the Amazon Kindle does. You can forget about setting the iPad aside and having it read you to sleep. Another feature found in competing e-reader software such as MobiPocket Reader is autoscroll page turning, but this is a deficiency shared by Kindle and Nook.

There's no iBooks app for anything but the iPad yet (it has been announced as a feature in iPhone OS 4, which arrives this summer), so if you want to move from reading on that to, say, on your desktop or iPhone the way you can with Amazon or Barnes and Noble, you'll have to wait.

The iPad does some very nice things with books, but I still wouldn't recommend purchasing it just as an e-reader. For e-book reading alone, your eyes are better served by the Kindle or Nook both of which offer far more titles, too. Still, Apple has done nearly as good a job as could be expected in terms of software. The app's got a few shortcomings, but many of those look to be easily fixed with an update. The brightness and bulk issues part of the iPad's design, but if those don't bother you, iBooks makes the iPad a more-than-capable e-book reader.

iBooks for iPad

Bottom Line: iBooks has a lovely bookstore and reading presentation, but a few features are missing, the selection is smaller than the competition, and the iPad itself has some natural drawbacks as an e-reader.

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About the Author

Michael Muchmore is PC Magazine?s lead analyst for software and Web applications. A native New Yorker, he has at various times headed up PC Magazine?s coverage of Web development, enterprise software, and display technologies. Michael cowrote one of the first overviews of Web Services for a general audience. Before that he worked on PC Magazine?s S... See Full Bio

iBooks for iPad

iBooks for iPad

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